They let me go....

I was never fond of Best Buy buying Future Shop about twelve years ago. Over the years they did seem to operate in a mostly hands-off manner, but I think trouble began to be in the offing when BB bought a lot of those (then) closed Circuit City stores in the States. After that there was the crash of '08 and BB seems to have been reeling ever since. BB of Canada started to hurt and then FS started to feel it.

It's going to be very hard to maintain decent staff morale after today particularly in a smaller store like mine and I suspect this has been happening in other stores as well.

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I was one of the many laid off when Circuit City closed down in late 2008 (3 days before Christmas was the last day for my store) so I know how you feel. We found out in mid October '08 and it was just a devastating blow. I had been there for about 4 years so I can only imagine having been there for 13. The place had become a home away from home for me so it was rough to see it go.

If it helps, the job I went to after CCity closing was the place where I met my wife, and had they never gone out of business I never would have stepped foot in that store. Just something to think about if you need some optimism.

Yesterday was a bright and sunny and lovely Spring day and it felt good to be outside...yet the rest of the day tasted like ashes. Tomorrow rain in forecast for most of the day...yet might it be better?

I don't know.

It's going on 4:30 AM and tomorrow is a blank slate. I've never been in this position before. Not like this. I'm not sure what to do tomorrow.

The fact that six others besides me were let go yesterday tells me there is some serious shit going on at FS head office in Vancouver. My whole (former) department has been gutted. Poor planning and poor judgement have caught up with them and we're the latest victims. And all they kept were twenty year old kids and inexperienced part-timers. Morale of those remaining will be shit. Good luck to putting on a happy face for those customers coming through the door.

The fact that six others besides me were let go yesterday tells me there is some serious shit going on at FS head office in Vancouver. My whole (former) department has been gutted. Poor planning and poor judgement have caught up with them and we're the latest victims. And all they kept were twenty year old kids and inexperienced part-timers. Morale of those remaining will be shit. Good luck to putting on a happy face for those customers coming through the door.

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That's what happened at my last job. Years of missing budget targets, investing in a doomed product, failing to engage with market trends, and holding onto subpar personnel really hurt them. They (the investors) brought in a new CEO, one of the slash-and-burn types whose job it is to cut the company down to a profitable state. They canned about a third of the company through a series of RIFs, though there was one big one, and that's the one that got me.

The company really needed a lot of the people that were let go. Some were brought back as contractors. Some told the company to fuck off. Various people left on their own. Morale was very poor, as people had to pick up the slack of those who'd been released, while worrying they could be next on the chopping block.

It's been about four years, now. The new CEO is out, and one of the original founders is back in. Some of the people who'd been let go or left have gone back. They say it's not quite the same company, but they are still glad to be there.

As for myself, I worked at that company for seven years, and it was a good job to me. It gave me a lot of skills that serve me well in my current position. I moved from Indiana to New Jersey for this job, and my life has changed a lot. I can't see myself going back. Things are just too different now, and I feel like that part of my life is over and not something I should try to get back.

Losing your job after having it for a long time is indeed scary and unsettling, but if you look at it as an opportunity rather than a burden, you can really put your life in a new direction and take advantage of it.

It's hard after so long. My husband was laid off after 31 years with his company this month. Luckily he saw it coming and had lined up another job and the timing worked out well enough for him to get severance too. He wasn't the only one let go either.

Wow! Just...wow! After thirteen years they let me and Cipra (another fella in my department), both full-timers, go from Future Shop. It at least puts to rest any thought of maybe having done something wrong. But some serious realignments in the company have cost us our jobs. Just...wow! I wish them luck in maintaining staff morale and filling our shoes. Now I gotta figure out what I'm going to do.

I went in like usual and began my routine. Then the GM ducked his head in and asked to see me. He said he needed me for something. When I get into the office my antenna was up and I sensed something was amiss. All he'd say was that the company was making changes and my services were no longer required. I learned later that a couple of others were let go as well.

A beautiful sunny day and what a way to start it. At least my (former) GM had the decency to look genuinely upset about it. He took pains to assure me it had nothing to do with my performance or anything else related to my service, that it was just a business decision made from above and out of his hands. He tried to reassure me that he considered me a friend and one of his very best workers, but there was nothing he could do.

Great news coming on the heels of learning my father has esophagus cancer and what he is facing in the coming months.

Wow! Just...wow! After thirteen years they let me and Cipra (another fella in my department), both full-timers, go from Future Shop. It at least puts to rest any thought of maybe having done something wrong. But some serious realignments in the company have cost us our jobs. Just...wow! I wish them luck in maintaining staff morale and filling our shoes. Now I gotta figure out what I'm going to do.

I went in like usual and began my routine. Then the GM ducked his head in and asked to see me. He said he needed me for something. When I get into the office my antenna was up and I sensed something was amiss. All he'd say was that the company was making changes and my services were no longer required. I learned later that a couple of others were let go as well.

A beautiful sunny day and what a way to start it. At least my (former) GM had the decency to look genuinely upset about it. He took pains to assure me it had nothing to do with my performance or anything else related to my service, that it was just a business decision made from above and out of his hands. He tried to reassure me that he considered me a friend and one of his very best workers, but there was nothing he could do.

Great news coming on the heels of learning my father has esophagus cancer and what he is facing in the coming months.

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nobody owes you a job.

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Thanks. How comforting. They tossed me aside after thirteen years of commitment and effort and good service as well as a wealth of experience and put in place a twenty-two year old without a quarter of that. They made such a move without bothering to ask whether I was willing to make a change within a new setup. Fuck 'em, and by them I mean those faceless higher-ups who have been displaying a recurring habit of stupid thinking for quite some time now.

Thanks. How comforting. They tossed me aside after thirteen years of commitment and effort and good service as well as a wealth of experience and put in place a twenty-two year old without a quarter of that. They made such a move without bothering to ask whether I was willing to make a change within a new setup. Fuck 'em, and by them I mean those faceless higher-ups who have been displaying a recurring habit of stupid thinking for quite some time now.

Loyalty and fairness runs two ways.

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This might sound silly, but I believe a company should be more than just a money factory for it's shareholders. Corporations become part of the community, they bring jobs, and opportunity. A person who works many years of their life to ensure the company makes a profit shouldn't simply be dropped after so long and told 'good luck, kid!' as if you have all the time in the world to start over.

Like you, I believe loyalty should be rewarded. Employees come cheap, but good employees are rare and should be treasured; and it seems the popular trend in any large business is to ignore that, and to treat employees like nameless, faceless, interchangeable parts.

Wow! Just...wow! After thirteen years they let me and Cipra (another fella in my department), both full-timers, go from Future Shop. It at least puts to rest any thought of maybe having done something wrong. But some serious realignments in the company have cost us our jobs. Just...wow! I wish them luck in maintaining staff morale and filling our shoes. Now I gotta figure out what I'm going to do.

I went in like usual and began my routine. Then the GM ducked his head in and asked to see me. He said he needed me for something. When I get into the office my antenna was up and I sensed something was amiss. All he'd say was that the company was making changes and my services were no longer required. I learned later that a couple of others were let go as well.

A beautiful sunny day and what a way to start it. At least my (former) GM had the decency to look genuinely upset about it. He took pains to assure me it had nothing to do with my performance or anything else related to my service, that it was just a business decision made from above and out of his hands. He tried to reassure me that he considered me a friend and one of his very best workers, but there was nothing he could do.

Great news coming on the heels of learning my father has esophagus cancer and what he is facing in the coming months.

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nobody owes you a job.

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Infraction for trolling. You got banned from TNZ for trolling, so why on Earth would you assume that you could get away with it on the rest of the board where the rules are far more strict? Knock it off. Comments to PM.

Thanks. How comforting. They tossed me aside after thirteen years of commitment and effort and good service as well as a wealth of experience and put in place a twenty-two year old without a quarter of that. They made such a move without bothering to ask whether I was willing to make a change within a new setup. Fuck 'em, and by them I mean those faceless higher-ups who have been displaying a recurring habit of stupid thinking for quite some time now.

Loyalty and fairness runs two ways.

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I will just comment on what you said without referencing the comment that prompted it.

First, you shouldn't read the rest of this comment if you are feeling very upset or emotional right now, because you won't be in the right mind to take this in the spirit with which it is given.

These decisions are almost always made in a completely bottom-line manner. Your experience, loyalty, and hard work are not represented on a balance sheet. Only your costs--your salary, benefits, etc.--are. It's not fair, and it's not a complete picture of what you are actually worth to the company, but when there is a budget crunch and the company needs to fix the balance sheet, cutting people is a quick and easy way to do that. Unfortunately, people who have been with the company a long time are often the first to go, because they are the most expensive.

Second, experience is not worth as much as people think it is, either to the company where you gained it or future employers. The bulk of what you learned in your 13 years there will likely be picked up by your replacement in 6-12 months, assuming there is a substantial amount of complexity entailed in the position. In other words, many years of experience translates into a large amount of redundancy.

As your boss told you, it was a business decision, not a personal one, and it sounds like it was made by people who don't even know you. That's pretty common, and there's another important lesson in there: you cannot expect loyalty from an employer. You just can't. Even if your boss loves you, they can't do much if upper management has opted for across-the-board cuts. No matter what you've contributed to the company, again, you represent an expense that's taking a chunk out of the bottom line. What you brought to the company over the past 13 years means little in the face of what you cost the company today, tomorrow, next month, next year, etc.

Losing your job can be very painful. I went through the same thing. There's a grieving process involved. Eventually, you will make peace with it, or it will drive you crazy.

If and when you decide to go looking for another job, think about the diversity of experiences you had at Future Shop and any previous employers. What skills did you learn and how did you apply them to various situations? The job market's changed quite a bit over the past 13 years, and a quality that's sought now more than ever is versatility. Don't sell yourself as having done the same job reliably for a long period. Nobody wants that, nobody cares about that. They want to hear how you learned, grew, changed, and adapted over that period. That is a huge part of success in today's job market: demonstrating that you have the ability to dive into something new and aren't afraid to change.

What happened to you isn't fair, but it happens to a whole lot of people. There's also nothing you can do to change it. All you can do is decide how to move forward. As I said in an earlier post, try to view this as an opportunity rather than a rejection or a tragedy. You are no longer tied to this company. No one owns you. What do you want to do now?

I apologize if the above sounds like a lecture or something. You can take it for what it's worth. Most of it is stuff I wish people had told me back when I lost my job and didn't know what to do. If it's stuff you already knew, then great! If you got some guidance from it, then I'm glad. If none of it appeals to you, then at least you got my buck fifty about it.

I worked for a major long-distane company 8 or 9 years, survived 3 corporate and district layoffs, and finally got the boot less than a year after they absorbed another company (whose employees were guaranteed their jobs). The severance package was good. It did give me some small comfort that a few years later, they themselves had some big financial scandal and were absorbed by another company. Now they exist in name only as a subsidiary.

I was 16 years in an aerospace company, then got laid off. Well, I was on stress leave and Hubby was being recruited, so I volunteered--but I would've been among the chosen anyway. Yeah, it was weird to be unemployed, especially since I had made it through EIGHT YEARS of layoffs and 4 companies--the original, which got sold, and then sold, and then partially sold to a subsidiary.

That was 13 years ago. I am currently a homemaker, taking care of Hubby and the house, so he can focus on his stressful job--and us, of course. That's after going back to school for my BA and then JD.